Flyers Need Improved Goaltending And Power Play

Will Buffalo's probable Hart Trophy winner as the NHL's Most Valuable Player even be dressed for today's 2 p.m. game against the Flyers that will be telecast on Fox?

Can the Sabres use the home crowd to rattle the Flyers and send the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Semifinal series back to Philadelphia for a Game 6?

The answers, in order, are yes, who knows and highly doubtful.

Yes, the Sabres do need the best goaltender in the NHL, and they need him to perform the way he did during the regular season with a 37-20-10 record, a 2.27 goals against average and a league-high .930 save percentage.

Yet, despite winning two Vezina Trophies as the NHL's top goalie, Hasek has come up short in the playoffs. This is the first time the Sabres have made it to the second round since 1983.

At the age of 32, Hasek has just six years of NHL experience, but owns the Sabres all-time shutout record with 20, including five this season. The "Dom-inator," as he's called, is a beast during the regular season, but the playoffs are another matter.

When Buffalo News columnist Jim Kelley questioned the extent of Hasek's knee injury during Game 3 of the opening round series against Ottawa, Kelley also noted a morning blow up with coach Ted Nolan and an early exit during that game's pre-game skate. Kelley pointed out Hasek's lack of playoff success and wondered if the goalie didn't have some sort of permanent post-season mental block.

Hasek attacked Kelley in a hallway after a game in that series, and was suspended for the first three games of the current series. Hasek was slated to start Game 4 in Philly on Friday night, but after about five minutes in the pre-game warm-up, left the ice and backup Andrei Trefilov joined the team.

Sabres P.R. issued a statement that Hasek and his doctor would meet with the press following Buffalo's 5-4 overtime win, but neither was available for comment.

"I knew it wasn't going to be Hasek," Flyers coach Terry Murray said. "Shields didn't surprise us at all. Hasek went out for warmups for about five minutes.

"Shields has played really well. He's been their best player. We have had close to 40 shots every game and he is making spectacular stops. He's a big man and he is using his size really well. We are having a difficult time getting pucks by him to make it an easy game on ourselves."

The Flyers have outscored opponents 35-23 in nine playoff games so far, but have launched 378 shots. That means opposing goalies hold a .925 save percentage against them. Either Shields and Pittsburgh's Ken Wregget are the second coming of Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck (one of whom the Flyers will face if they make the E.C. Finals), or the Flyers are having a terrible shot selection.

Good goalies make saves look easy. They are able to get in front of shots so they can stop them with their bodies. There have been a lot of body stops against the Flyers in the playoffs. The question remains, however, is it the goaltending or the shooting that is the problems?

The Flyers have had no problem peppering goaltenders in the first two series. They aren't finding the back of the net often enough, however. Buffalo had just 25 shots on Garth Snow Friday night, yet scored five times. Snow gave up three goals on the first 15 shots he faced and the percentage remained the same.

The first two rounds of the playoffs magnify the Flyers need for improved goaltending. If other teams have goalies that stop so many of the Flyers shots, why can't the Flyers' goaltending respond in kind?

Secondly, the Flyer power play has been less than lackluster. Friday night, the advantage unit picked up one goal on eight advantages with over 15 minutes of advantage time. For the playoffs, the power play has just eight goals in 52 chances, a weak success rate of 15.3 percent.

Whether or not Hasek plays today does not matter. If he does, the Sabres can pull out the game and send the series back to Philadelphia, but the Flyers should be able to clinch the series anyway. They've never lost a playoff series when leading three games to none (7-0 all-time), although Buffalo did pick up its first-ever playoff win in Philly (1-10) on Friday.

The bigger task for the Flyers is to improve the two key areas that can win a Stanley Cup, and those are goaltending and the power play. A good goalie shouldn't be able to just steal you a game -- as Shields did Friday -- but steal an entire series ala Richter, Brodeur or Colorado's Patrick Roy.

And until the Flyers get the power play stoking, opponents will continue to take chippy penalties because it doesn't hurt them if the Flyers can't score on the advantage.

* A classic moment in the Philly/Buffalo series came in Game 3 Wednesday night. The Flyers scored an empty net goal with 11.7 seconds left for a 3-1 lead.